George Broussard Is Alive. Also He’s Commenting On People Who Don’t Finish Games !?!

Leo Espada July 21, 2015PC Gaming NewsComments Off on George Broussard Is Alive. Also He’s Commenting On People Who Don’t Finish Games !?!

I purchased Duke Nukem Atomic Edition this past weekend. I’m surprised it took me this long to add it to my game collection. Released in 1996, it’s still a fun game in 2015. 20 years later and I still chuckle at some of Duke’s over the top antics and scenarios. Duke’s tasked with saving a city from an alien invasion, but still has time to stop, tip the 2D sprite strippers dancing throught the choas. It was crude and irreverent, but it was also a major video game hit in 1996. In one infamous cutscene, Duke rips off a boss’s head and defecates down his neck. Poetic? Or prophetic? Some would say prophetic. In a similar move, the sequel to Duke3d was destroyed in humiliating fashion. Duke Nukem Forever became the game industry’s most demeaning failure.

George Broussard, contemplating how to make his entire company go out like Heaven’s Gate – Circa 2003

3d Realms and Duke Nukem Forever can almost be called a ghost story. Young gamers gather around campfires, telling the tale of how a great game and franchise were killed over a span of a dozen years. Even people who didn’t play Duke3d during the peak of its popularity in the late 90s know of Duke Nukem Forever’s legendary failure. DNF holds the record for longest game in developmental purgatory. Even when the game was turned over to Gearbox for rush completion in 2011, most of the game was still in conceptual stages. For twelve years fans clamored for the game. A few doctored screenshots were released as well as, two misleading trailers. For 12 years the only comment George Broussard, the games co-creator and lead designer, would give on the release date was “when it’s done!”

So it came as a complete surprise when this 300 pound ironic cannonball came roaring through Twitter:

Someone’s making a game that’s never going to finish? SIGN ME UP

Is there a slight breeze on your face at this time? It’s probably coming from my eyes, as they blink rapidly in disbelief.

It is likely George Broussard has spent the last 6 years post-Duke digging himself out of a 13 mile cavernous hole left behind when 3d Realms sank into oblivion. There are still game fans at how “their” sequel was handled. While most of the smoke has subsided, it has not been forgotten.

Six years later George Broussard crawls out from under the ashes. He decides to post something on Twitter for the world to read. Which turns out to be the Most Ironic Tweet of All Time. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and Broussard is driving a Mad Max: Fury Road vehicle through his. Derek Smart instantly picked up the tweet as well. Instant magic carpet ride for George Broussard.

Granted, it is hard to deny the growing questions regarding Star Citizen’s development. The ship flight gameplay demo shown at E3 was impressive. However the publicized scope for Star Citizen could be something financially impossible to achieve.

However, Star Citizen actually began development in 2011, with a target release date of 2016. Last I checked it isn’t 2016 yet. Chris Roberts would have to at least drag this game out past 2024 before Broussard had any business commenting on development status. Even then, George should light a cigar, and flop his pasty arm around Roberts and welcome him to the support group for bad developers. The last thing George should probably do is comment on RSI’s spending, or lack of additional crowd funding resources.

If crowd funding existed in 1998, I am sure by 2011 3d Realms would have been charged with federal crimes. It was bad enough Broussard milked fans with a dozen editions of Duke 3d to keep funding his non-existent game throughout those years. Imagine if he could have abused crowd funding back then? Star Citizen might meet all of the promises made by Chris Robert. It might be a huge disappointment. The fate of the game is unknown. But there is no question that Broussard is responsible for one of the worst development failures in PC gaming…not to mention one of the least self-aware tweets in recent memory.